Abstract

Macroscopic electroencephalographic (EEG) fields can be an explicit top-down neocortical mechanism that directly drives bottom-up processes that describe memory, attention, and other neuronal processes. The top-down mechanism considered is macrocolumnar EEG firings in neocortex, as described by a statistical mechanics of neocortical interactions (SMNI), developed as a magnetic vector potential A. The bottom-up process considered is Ca^(2+) waves prominent in synaptic and extracellular processes that are considered to greatly influence neuronal firings. Here, the complimentary effects are considered, i.e., the influence of A on Ca^(2+) momentum, p. The canonical momentum of a charged particle in an electromagnetic field, Π=p+qA (SI units), is calculated, where the charge of Ca^(2+) is q=−2e, e is the magnitude of the charge of an electron. Calculations demonstrate that macroscopic EEG A can be quite influential on the momentum p of Ca^(2+) ions, in both classical and quantum mechanics. Molecular scales of Ca^(2+) wave dynamics are coupled with A fields developed at macroscopic regional scales measured by coherent neuronal firing activity measured by scalp EEG. The project has three main aspects: fitting A models to EEG data as reported here, building tripartite models to develop A models, and studying long coherence times of Ca^(2+) waves in the presence of A due to coherent neuronal firings measured by scalp EEG. The SMNI model supports a mechanism wherein the p+qA interaction at tripartite synapses, via a dynamic centering mechanism (DCM) to control background synaptic activity, acts to maintain short-term memory (STM) during states of selective attention.